Duie and Yu Sui sat together, side by side. In Duie's hand was Yu Sui's bamboo flute. Yu Sui had revealed everything....how he truly felt about Mo Yan. And in that moment, Duie too came to a realization: the feelings he had been carrying in his heart for so long... were no different from Yu Sui's.
He finally understood the answer to the question that often echoed silently within him.....what is this strange feeling I have for Su Nian?
Yes, it was love.
A true, deep compassion.
A yearning to keep him happy, to protect him, to give him everything that he had never received in this world.
He handed the flute back to Yu Sui and said softly,
"As long as you haven't played a tune for Mo Yan... this flute will never vanish. And it is necessary...it must reach his ears."
For Yu Sui to be outside and Mo Yan not to follow him... that was simply impossible.
Standing behind a stone pillar, Mo Yan had heard it all.....every single word. His heart was overflowing with pain, tears falling one after another from his eyes.
After so many years... he had finally received the answer to that unspoken question. The one he had been searching for in the depths of Yu Sui's eyes.....the one that had drowned him countless times but never spoken aloud.
And now he had heard it. With his own ears.
That Yu Sui had loved him since childhood...
That he had only ever been afraid...
That he had stayed away because of the darkness in his powers...
It was as if Mo Yan's very soul had been cleansed a million times over in a single breath.
This happiness... it was too much to bear.
Yu Sui and Duie quietly left from there..
And Mo Yan walked away too, wearing a true smile on his lips.
A smile that held only one name within it.....Yu Sui.
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Note: I don't want to make this story boring by showing the events again and again. You may find the continuation of this arc in the bonus chapter. Please check out the chapter number 77 If you want to know what happened next
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Their studies had come to an end.
Su Nian was bestowed the highest rank among the Emperor's chosen disciples....the title of First and Most Distinguished Student.
The other nineteen disciples had also been selected.
And now, whoever would ascend to become the next Emperor, this elite unit of specially trained disciples would be sworn in service to him.
Everyone prepared to return to their homes.
But Su Nian… walked another path.
Not toward home.....but toward a different direction altogether.
And Duie....Duie could no longer let him go.
Not in this life.
Not in any.